Shroud of Turin Exhibit 12-8-09

There is an exhibit at the Notre Dame Hotel in Jerusalem on the Shroud of Turin (naturally - this is the land of all things Holy), so we went. Nathan, a great kid, organized a tour of the exhibit, which is normally free, but I don't think there are tours usually, so this was an awesome experience, and Nathan invited anyone who wanted to come at the weekly forum announcements on Tuesday.

First, however, I went out before lunch with Megan and Emily, and we went to the Church of the Ascension. It's on the Mount of Olives, so we could just go there really quick before lunch. We kind of got confused and went to a "Chapel of the Ascension" first, which is just a round courtyard with lots of weeds in it, and then a little dome that is now a mosque. It was the church that Helena built though, or on the site of that church, so that was cool. The one we were trying to go to was the Russian Orthodox Church of the Ascension, which also is a convent. We went there and there were nuns, so we had to wrap something around our pants to make skirts, and wear scarves on our heads. Good times. It was a beautiful church though. Apparently it was sacked by the Muslims, I think, and the nuns were martyred in the chapel, so you can see some of the blood stains on the floor of the stones that are original. Crazy. Anyway, that was our pre-lunch adventure.

This is the Chapel of the Ascension, and basically everything in the picture is all you get, nothing more. It was a good five sheks though. Worth the little chuckle we got from it.

Me and Megan, in our "modest" garb. It's interesting that in the US we're seen as super conservative and extremely modest, but here's we're the floozies. "What? They don't have head coverings and are wearing pants! Whores!" I'm pretty sure that's what most of the people think here. Although, not really, cause we're still way way more modest than the other tourists here, and the people do really like us. We just got a little chuckle from talking about it while we were out.

This is the Russian Orthodox Church of the Ascension... Separate Tower, which unfortunately is under renovation and so we can't go up. Dang.

Inside the Church, complete with Nun Praying.

After lunch, but before the shroud of Turin, I went with two other people, Ally Beifus and Patrick Monson, to Zedekiah's cave! I didn't think I was going to get to go, because tons of people had gone a long time ago, and it costs ten sheks. BUT, I was walking downstairs, and Patrick asked me if I wanted to go, and I said yes, and we left. Simple as pie. It is a really cool cave, too. It is a rock quarry that is HUGE and goes UNDERNEATH the Old City. It's really big. I think they said 1800 square meters or something like that. It was used by Solomon to get rock to build buildings such as the temple and etc. Very cool.


The outside entrance, just a little door to the right and down a little ways from Damascus gate.

Me trying to get a good angle on a picture with the sign :)

This is Ally, Patrick, and me in the cave...

This is me in the biggest room. It really goes back quite a ways. It was cool.

So after that we went to the Shroud of Turin. It's kind of hard to find all the little details, but it is what some think is the burial cloth of Christ. It is about 15 feet long, I'd say (it has the image of a man's front and a man's back when it is spread out), and about... 4 feet wide? Maybe three. Anyway, it has been scientifically examined many, many times, and there are tons of different facets to its story. They use pollen dating, a lot of the time, to see when it is from. I guess the Carbon 14 dating failed, because of that. So, kind of interesting.

One thing, they have determined is that it wasn't painted on, and that it can't be an imprint caused by contact with the cloth. That sounds confusing, but it is because the image is more like a negative of an imprint, as if it was burned into the cloth by light. So, scientifically there is no explanation for the Shroud. So it is treated as a miracle, like a miraculous....icon? I guess? More like a relic from Christ? I don't know. Anyway, it was very enlightening. I really enjoyed it. I took some pictures too.

Oh, they reconstructed what the man in the shroud, whether or not it was Christ, looked like from some intense forensic study. So they created a statue of it, and had it on display. It's crazy. Oh I forgot to say that it is determinable, from the image in the shroud, to know that the man died of crucifixion, he was beaten badly by scourging, and had a crown of thorns (which covered the whole head, not just a ring around the head, but his whole head). Oh, also that he had a wound in his side that was not closed up, meaning that it probably happened after death. Interesting, right?

This is Father Kelly, downstairs just explaining stuff about it. I took pictures of all the panels, which will explain about it more than I can, if you want to read it when I get back.

This is the replica of what a crown of thorns would've looked like in that age. They didn't discover a complete description of it until after the Middle Ages, so it's pretty interesting.

These are examples of the nails that they used to crucify, from an actual body that was crucified somewhere and the nails were left in it. I guess these ones are 33% too big, though.

This is the reconstructed statue of what the man in the shroud looks like.

His face, and you can see the wound in his side..

This is a replica of the Shroud that they had there. The shroud isn't always open to public display in Turin. Someone told me that it hasn't been open for public viewing since 2000?

This is an example of the Roman-era whips that would've been used to scourge Christ.

This is a Negative of a photograph of the Shroud, which is actually a positive, meaning that the shroud itself is a negative...interesting, if you can wrap your head around it.

Anyway, so that was my Tuesday! Just a normal Tuesday in the Holy Land!